Space, that Old Frontier

I had no idea that this miniseries even existed until I read about it in Tom Hanks' foreward to the newest edition of the excellent book The Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, by Andrew Chaikin. Apparently, that book was not only one of the chief inspirations for the movie Apollo 13 (on which Chaikin served as technical advisor), but also for the much lesser-known series. It's much less Hollywood than Apollo 13, with a much less broad focus - minor astronauts that nobody's heard of since the late 60s (or administrators that nobody has ever heard of) might have an entire episode dedicated to them. It's kind of refreshing.

The show focuses its attention to historical details of every degree, along with honest and, at times, touching characterizations of not only astronauts and administrators, but normal folks at the periphery of the space program. In particular, epsiode 2: "Apollo One," starting with the fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on the launch pad in 1967, had a scene where the wives of surviving astronauts went to the houses of the spouses of the deceased. Their reactions were hard to watch, for all their authenticity. It was more touching than I expected.

The show is far from perfect - it's slow at times, and the cinematography leaves a bit to be desired. Scene transitions are awkward, the special effects middling at best, and there's an over-reliance on stock footage (frequently for establishing shots). Oh, and for some reason, despite their intense focus on historical accuracy, they still hug that old chestnut of science fiction movies: a deep, bass rumbling as ships fly past the camera. Not only is there no sound in space (a minor issue I might touch on later), not only are the ships not firing their engines, but the sound is so throbbing and intense you'd expect it was a Star Destroyer flying past. A little weird, to say the least.

In the end, though, to anyone interested in the history of the times it can't be beat. To be honest, I'm not even halfway through the series but I'm addicted. Just based on what I've seen, I have to recommend it to people looking for a thoughtful work. A slightly sad one, as well - seeing what Americans did in the 1960s makes me a little wistful for what we could be doing now.